This week, the Philadelphia Eagles lost what may be the most essential player to their team. Carson Wentz was having a phenomenal year, leading the league with 33 touchdown passes. But it all went down in flames on Sunday when Wentz suffered an ACL tear, ending his season. The Eagles are built to weather this storm and should still compete in the NFC, but it’s an undoubtedly huge loss for the conference leaders.

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Whether or not Wentz is the player the Eagles could least afford to lose is up for debate. But for the Detroit Lions, there is no debate. Without Matthew Stafford, this team is doomed.

Last year, Stafford got all of the credit for the Lions’ nine wins, and rightfully so. In eight of those nine wins, he orchestrated fourth-quarter comeback drives, setting an NFL record. He did so with the worst-ranked defense in Football Outsiders’ DVOA and a bottom-10 running game.

This year, Stafford hasn’t been awarded the same attention. He hasn’t had as many of the flashy comebacks and, at times, he’s been given some help from his defense in the form of turnovers.

But Matthew Stafford may be more irreplaceable than ever. The Lions cut loose Dan Orlovsky in the offseason, leaving Jake Rudock as their backup quarterback. Rudock has only thrown five career NFL passes and one of those was a pick-six.

And Stafford is arguably playing even better than last year. Check the stats: